A 1GHz dual-core CPU has two 1GHz processors in it. I will also agree that it's basically overkill, but considering how open Android is without even needing to jailbreak it, having that power is more useful than having that same amount of power on an iPhone. You can't really just write off progress in the smart phone industry like that. Also, multi-core processors are much better for multitasking. The iPhone gets away with using a single core because it only runs one app at a time (with some minor exceptions, but that's really too technical and confusing to try to explain here); on Android you can be running several processes, which means you have a large benefit from having multiple cores.
I was almost certain that the iPhone had a single core processor, but Wikipedia tells me otherwise. You do bring up a good point with the iPhone's "multi-tasking" gimmick making it not require more processors. What I wonder is, why doesn't Android use iPhone's way of multi-tasking? I don't see why you would want an app running in the background when you can freeze it at the current point instead and save battery life. Music is the only thing that I can think of that I would like to run in the background and the iPhone supports that. Maybe someone can shed some light on some uses of having true multi-tasking on a smart phone?
I think you are wanting to make an argument about dots per inch (DPI). The Retina display has an absolutely ridiculous DPI which really isn't matched by anything else, not to mention general picture quality and contrast. It's quite a battery hog, though. At least Apple gave it a good battery to make up for it.
I do know the difference between dpi and resolution, but I'm confused to why I need to be specific on DPI instead of resolution when the resolution itself still beats most Androids at 960 x 640. Apple must have really did well on the battery if it hogs a lot of the battery, because I get better life on this phone than I did with my 3G which didn't have a retina display at all. Then again, the 3G did come out in 08..
Flash video doesn't work. HTML5 video does, however. The iPhone has zero Flash compatibility; when you go to YouTube, it launches the native YouTube app, which uses h.264 (I believe). If you go to another website that shows video, for example The Onion, then it's using HTML5 video, which is played using QuickTime. Same for audio.
I wasn't aware of the difference between HTML5 and Flash video, so I figured when I browsed the web and since I could view nearly any video I've wanted, Flash video must have been supported. I have seen some tweaks in Cydia (The jailbreak app store) that enables Flash support, so that may work. Anyway, I guess this is something some people may really want in a phone and may be the 1 thing that makes them choose Android, but since I've been able to view all the videos I want, it's not enough to convince me, and I could always download that tweak if I needed to.
I'm fairly certain the 4S has a 1.0ghz dual core processor anyways. The friends you have who's Android phones are crashing are the same people I talk to every single day: People who don't know how to use their phones. They are the people that download every thing they see on the Android Market, which by being open source means it has a lot of crap on it that causes people's phones to crash and freeze. If they took two minutes to research the app they download it prior to installation, they wouldn't be having nearly the same issues.
This is one of the reasons I don't like Android's. The open source market is one of it's biggest flaws. Smart phones aren't for the techy kids anymore, everybody has them, so as a result, you're going to have people downloading anything they think LOOKS interesting, so you've got all these crappy apps that cause their phones to crash and freeze. It shouldn't be an average person's responsibility to research an app before they download it. That's like telling me, who knows nothing about cars, that I should research the oil or gas I put in my car or else it has the possibility to break down. When something is being used by a large percentage of individuals in America, like cars, then you need some sort of way to make sure the majority, who don't know much about technology, are able to use their phones without them failing because they didn't research.
That's not to say all Android devices are perfect though, by any means. People also fail to realize that they get what they pay for. When you are using a Motorola Cliq you got for free in 2009 running v2.1 (or maybe even 1.5) then sure, you're going to have some issues.
This applies to iPhone's before the 4 as well. Issues come with having old phones in general, we can all gree to that, but I believe more issues rise when you have probably around 100 different types of Android phones which are made by about 5 different companies. Another thing I like about the iPhone is that compatibility issues aren't as frequent. I also don't have to worry about buying an iPhone and then having another iPhone come out a month or two later that makes mine look like ****. Since iPhone's only release once a year, I can keep up with their game.
But as to your argument that you can do anything with an iPhone you can with an Android, it's just not true. Your phone doesn't even have removable storage. You can't even take your battery out. You can't purchase insurance on your phone. You have to void your warranty by jailbreaking it to do practically anything with it. Your phone can't use widgets. Your phone doesn't have flash. Your phone requires you to use iTunes to complete any sort of integration with your computer. Those are things off the top of my head and I'm sure there are several more.
Ah yes, removable storage. I always forget about that. I will agree that I would love to have removable storage on my iPhone, but again, it's not something I'm willing to switch over. Also, I've had a few friends who's removable storage quit working all of a sudden and they lost a lot of data, so I guess there's a flaw in it..
I don't see why I would even WANT to take my battery out when my phone is perfectly fine with it in.
I can't purchase insurance on my phone? Maybe not officially but there's plenty of websites that have warranty plans so I guess you could do that. I don't want to pay for insurance on my phone anyway so it doesn't matter for me.
I'm almost 100% positive that jailbreaking doesn't void your warranty if you reformat your phone, so if you needed to send your phone into Apple for any reason, you could always reformat before sending it in. Even if it does leave some sort of trace, I don't have a warranty on it anyway so it doesn't affect me, but I see how it could affect others.
You could have said that I couldn't use widgets a long time ago, but with iOS 5, we got a notification center that allows widgets. Apple currently only supports 2 (Stocks and Weather) but with jailbreaking, I'm able to add SBSettings (a "widget" that I get from sliding the top area of my screen to quickly turn off wifi, 3G, adjust brightness, so and so) and I also have a widget that displays the current music I have playing and allows me skip, pause, etc.. Other than that, I can't think of a widget that I would really want. You guys can tell me some of the widgets you use that I didn't mention above (other than social network widgets, eww) to try and convince me even more, but it really won't do anything since I'm not a fan of widgets in the first place.
The iTunes sync isn't necessarily required because I'm pretty sure other 3rd party applications have ways to sync with your iPhone. There's an application that I have on my PC that allows me to view my iPhone's structure, like your Android, but that's usually used for tinkering things. I also use iTunes as my standard music player anyway since I never got used to winamp, so having to use iTunes isn't really a problem for me, but I can see it being a problem for others.
But yes, I will admit I was wrong when I said I could do
anything with my iPhone that Android could do. What I should have said was that I can do
the things I want with my iPhone that Android could do
The simple fact though is that if you like to wear handcuffs or be told what to do and how to do it, the iPhone is a good choice. If you want the ability to use your phone how you want it, Android.
That's the argument I hate hearing the most. The handcuffs and being told what to do and how to do it is required for many of these average smart phone users. People who don't know much about technology need these handcuffs so they don't go downloading crapware from an open source market and then call their customer support and anger them by their stupidity. Those of us who ARE able to handle this without these handcuffs can go jailbreak their phone and have the freedom they want, which is what I have.
Frankly I'm not surprised at all that iPhones are so popular though. They are created by the greatest advertising company on the planet. Their phones are featured in every movie, tv show, cartoon, commercial, newspaper, magazine, or any other media outlet on the planet (even smashboards, as Roman pointed out). There are people that want smartphones but don't want to really integrate them into their lifestyle or go through the process to learn them, and the iPhone is great for them. The iPhone is more than a phone. It's a social phenomenon. It's the status-quo. It's the freaking bees knees and every cool kid has one. But somewhere over in the corner in a highschool hallway is a geeky nerd boy creating his own universe on an Android without a single limitation to behold.
See, here's what I'm seeing many Android users say. Android is a geeky nerd toy that isn't good for the average person because they don't know what they're doing, but if you are good with technology, then it can become the perfect smart phone. iPhone, on the other hand, is very ristricted with it's closed market and not-so-open OS, so it makes a perfect smart phone for an average person. What people fail to realize though is that if you are already good with technology, then the Android isn't automatically the best phone because of the iPhone restrictions. If you're already good with technology, then jailbreaking shouldn't be hard at all because jailbreaking your iPhone is as easy as researching a specific jailbreak program that supports your model and OS, download it, plug iPhone in, follow their 3 simple steps, and you're done. After that, the OS is as open as Android, if not a little more open. So here's what I see.
Android:
For normal people - Be careful, with our open OS you can do a lot of changes to your phone. Some apps may cause your phone to crash, but if you research before hand (which you, as a normal person, probably won't) then you should be A-OK!
For techys - You're probably smart enough to notice crapware, so with our open OS, you can feel free to make this phone how YOU want it!
iPhone:
For normal people - Our very restricted smartphone makes it hard for apps that could potentially hinder the performance of your iPhone to appear on our appstore. As a result, you can feel safe to download whatever you want! Since you're an average person who probably uses their smartphone for games, facebook, twitter, internet browsing, calling, and messaging, then you probably won't notice these restrictions in the first place!
For techys - Jailbreak your phone and then you can feel free to make this phone how YOU want it!
From what I've seen from all of this, the only thing I really wish I had in my iPhone is removable storage. Even though they sometimes fail, it would still be nice to have the option to keep data like music on, which I always have backed up anyway. One small thing like this isn't enough to make me switch over to a completely different OS.
In conclusion, people need to stop thinking of the iPhone as restricted when they're tech savvy people, because it's not fair to count jailbreaking out of the question. If you're going to rant about how you can customize your phone to how you want it and you're smart enough to not download crapware, then you can't deny that you would be able to jailbreak your phone if you had one. It seems everybody crys foul if I mention jailbreaking and as if I'm supposed to argue without it on my side. Why would I do that when I'm using a jailbroken iPhone as my argument?
Anyway, I've ranted long enough and I realllllly didn't want to get into this. I'll continue to reply if I somebody makes a response that I feel is necessary to reply to because I spend 3 hours in a school with limited activity and I have all the time in the world to debate, but in the end,
it all comes down to preference. I'm 100% sure that nobody can convince me that I would like Android better because I already know the information on both sides and I've made my decision to stay with iPhone. The same probably applies to Android users. So, in the end, we're pointing out flaws in each others phones that we all probably already know about.
tl;dr: Don't debate if you can't handle walls of text. I GO HARD IN THE PAINT!
